Chapter one
Scorpius had inherited a substantial amount of what Ron Weasley would refer to as 'Malfoy gittishness,' thought Neville, Professor of Herbology at Hogwarts, as he listened to him rattle off the perfect answer to his question about the life span of Fanged Geraniums.
On one hand, he couldn't help being impressed at his pupil's knowledge, but at the same time there was an arrogant quality to Scorpius's voice as he answered that Neville didn't like, it implied that he felt himself to be above the subject.
Not that this was a very rare attitude, Neville had to admit mournfully, as he surveyed the students in his year 5 class, most of whom were either staring off vacantly or stealthily throwing fertilizer at each other. But all the same, there were some students as clever as Scorpius who managed to not to act bored to death with the subject, like Rose Weasley for example. He glanced over at her and had to hold back a laugh at the betrayed look she was currently giving him for choosing Scorpius to answer the question.
Having the moral standards as a teacher not to show favoritism could be a pain sometimes, thought Neville, as he gave her an ineffectual shrug.
He'd always make a deliberate effort to be pleasant towards Scorpius, since the boy's strong resemblance to Draco had given Neville an innate dislike for him that was clearly unfair, and he was determined to never let any student feel persecuted in his classes.
Although to be honest he had a feeling that a bit of persecution would do Scorpius more good than bad, and ruffling his cool, little façade was quite a tempting idea…
Extracting himself from his thoughts Neville realized that his class were all standing around, watching him daydream in exasperation. He pulled himself together hastily. "Alright everyone, just put away your fertilizer and you can head off, ok."
While the majority of the class swarmed out of the greenhouse, Scorpius packed away his fertilizer neatly, and then cast a meticulous set of cleaning spells over himself before leaving.
His friends had hung back to wait for him, but Scorpius was deep in thought and barely noticed them. His eyes constantly swept across the grounds as they walked towards the castle, pausing every so often to fix on Rose Weasley, who was a fair way ahead of him, and the small dark haired boy who was walking besides her, Albus Potter.
Scorpius had the kind of presence that made people respect, though not necessarily like him, and it didn't occur to his friends to be irritated by his emotional distance. They simply tagged along behind him, grumbling about the huge piles of homework McGonagall had set them the day before.
They continued in this manner until they reached the entrance hall. As they entered Scorpius's restless eyes immediately fixed on a gaggle of Gryffindor seventh years at the far end of the room and he paused.
It was a large group, and their loud, obnoxious laughter bounced around the room as they jostled towards the great hall.
Scorpius shifted slightly, drawing himself up a little taller, and setting his face more firmly into its customary indifferent mask. Then after quickly glancing behind him to make sure his friends were still following him Scorpius took a breath and called across the room, "hey Potter, how's your arm doing? Is it hurting after the plant bit it?" although his eyes kept flickering toward the older Gryffindors, Scorpius's comment was addressed at Albus Potter, who paused, about to enter the great hall, and glanced behind him to meet Scorpius's eyes.
It was crowded in the entrance hall, and a fair number of students were peering at them curiously. Scorpius smirked and stared back at them boldly, Albus on the other hand fidgeted in discomfort, looking as though he wished he was far away from the whole situation.
"It didn't paralyze your tongue did it?" Scorpius drawled in a carrying voice. "Because that'd be terrible."
Albus hesitated, and Rose, frowning, had just sucked in a huge breadth of air and seemed ready to step in to protect her cousin, when she was saved the trouble by a tall, lean boy with a mane of black hair, who strolled out of the group Scorpius had been eyeing earlier and across the hall to stand in front of him.
"Was he busy saving you from it when it bit him, ferret?" he asked, pitching his voice loud enough for the whole entrance hall to hear.
"After all, your family's pretty good at that aren't they, being saved…."
Scorpius stared at James Potter, for that's who the tall boy was, and a slight gleam entered his eyes.
A couple of people snickered, but Scorpius was focused on James and didn't appear to notice.
"Ferret? That one's pretty old Potter. Not too inventive when it comes to nicknames are you," he responded smoothly. But a slight flush had spread across his cheeks as he held James's gaze.
James noticed the flush, and raised an eyebrow sardonically.
"I guess you're just not worth the effort, ferret."
The comment appeared to strike a nerve, causing Scorpius to clench his fists and turning his frown several shades more genuine.
The only indication James gave that he'd noticed this was through twitching his eyebrow up a little higher. He lingered for half a moment, giving Scorpius a chance to recuperate with a comeback, which he didn't, and then James turned and strode off into the great hall without a backward glance, propelling his brother and cousin along in front of him.
Scorpius stared after him, and although his mouth was still drawn down tightly in irritation, there was a flicker of something amused in his eyes.
He barely seemed to notice the whispering crowd, although his friends did as they stood around him uncomfortably, and they looked visibly relieved when Scorpius collected himself and headed into the great hall to the Slytherin table, taking brisk, purposeful strides.
As he sat himself down, Scorpius glanced across the hall at the Gryffindor table, scanning it until he'd spotted James. If he'd hoped for any similar interest from his adversary however, he was disappointed. James was crammed in with a large group of friends and was laughing loudly at a comment made by one of them, his arm slung tightly around the girl sitting next to him.
Scorpius stared for a moment, his expression hardening, and then firmly directed his gaze down onto his plate.
X
James had fought back a scowl with difficulty as he herded his brother Albus to the Gryffindor table. That git Malfoy had been picking fights with Albus everywhere he looked lately, and his brother was far too gentle to handle it.
His parents had always been tight lipped when it came to the Malfoys. But a few years ago his uncle Ron had dragged him aside after a few Fire Whiskies one evening and filled him in about the long rivalry between Malfoy and his parents, finishing up with a recommendation to give Scorpius a good punch if he turned out to be anywhere near as slimy as his dad.
Malfoy's dad had probably given his son similar advice, thought James. That would have been fine if it was him that Malfoy targeted, it would have given him a great target to practice his curse work on.
But Albus, on the other hand, was a peaceful person, which made it hard for him to retaliate properly. Admittedly this had seldom stopped James from exercising his born right as an older brother to tease Albus himself, but that was different, and he wasn't going to let anyone else get away with doing it.
"You really should just curse the little snake next time," he told his younger brother sternly, knowing already that his advice would be ignored. "It would do him a world of good, and I know you're up for it. Your dueling is almost as good as dads."
Albus shrugged, "I doubt that'd help."
"Oh course it would, it'd humiliate the crap out of him. And stop him from ever showing his slimy face near you again."
"Well I think Albus is right," cut in his most annoying cousin Rose self-righteously, "Cursing Scorpius would mean sinking to his level. Albus is better than that. Unlike you, I might add"
James pulled a face. At moments like these he almost thought the two of them deserved to be harassed a bit. "Fine, do what you like," he grumbled, "but it's not like I can curse him for you, he's younger than me…"
Their conversation was cut off at that point. James had reached his group of friends, and Jenny, who was tall and curvy with sparkly eyes and her thick brown curls pushed behind her ears, had given a little shriek and pulled him down to sit next to her.
They weren't exactly dating, but neither of them was seeing anyone else at the moment, and they tended to act like they were. Starting with a few drunken nights in year five they'd fallen into the habit of sleeping with each other, no strings attached.
James grinned and slung an arm around her easily, using the other to pile lunch onto his plate.
"So James, I saw you picking on a tiny, little fifth grade Slytherin," called one of his friends from across the table, "Have you run out of older ones to fight with?"
James laughed, "Nope, he was just a particularly nasty one. And he was giving Albus a hard time. You know how Albus is….."
"So you swooped in to save the day did you, like some magnificent hero?" This came from Markus Smith, another of James's friends.
James grinned. Markus was both very short, and very gay, and his entire personality was dominated by those two traits. After spending about five years teasing him, most of James's friends had decided that they actual liked the guy, and he'd been sucked into their group enthusiastically.
He flirted so shamelessly with almost any male that they'd learned not to take him seriously. And despite the slightly homophobic overall stance of the group, most of the guys enjoyed playing along with, and even returning his flirting.
Being no exception, James pulled his most dashing face as he relied.
"The duties of an elder sibling never end."
Marcus nodded earnestly, "you go about your duties so well James…"
He had nothing against prolonging their banter, but before he had time to respond James overheard a comment involving Snape, his nemesis of the past seven years, which grabbed his attention and caused him to tune into the main conversation. This ended their exchange, much to Markus's obvious disappointment.
Jenny gave him a sympathetic pout, but tightened her arms around James as she did so in a manner that slightly ruined its effect.
X
Further down the table, Albus and Rose were engaged in an in depth discussion on the best way for a Keeper to block an incoming Quaffle. Although neither of them looked it, they were two of the best players in Gryffindor; Rose made a truly formidable Beater, and Albus had been the one in his family's generation to take after his father and grandfather, and was a natural seeker. Since he was a kid he'd been able to fly circles around James, who usually beat him at everything else. As a result James had given up on Quidditch as a bad job years ago, and now rarely went near a broomstick.
Over their conversation Albus had noticed that Rose was growing increasingly distracted. A frown had appeared on her face and her eyes kept drifting away from him to the other side of the hall, so he wasn't too surprised when she suddenly banged her fist on the table half way through one of his sentences.
"He's doing it again?" she burst out, as though this was supposed to make perfect sense.
Albus didn't answer, waiting for her to elaborate. Rose glanced at him after a moment, looking surprised that he wasn't following her.
"Scorpius" she explained, gesturing to where he was sitting with his friends at the Slytherin table. "Look at him. He's staring at James again."
It was true, Albus confirmed after looking over at the Slytherin table. Scorpius was directing a rather intense glare at his older brother, who was focused on his friends and apparently completely oblivious.
"Well they did just have a fight…" he said to Rose with a frown, "I don't think it's that strange."
She gave him a look, "then why isn't he glaring like that at us?"
"Well we're not the ones who humiliated him in public."
"True." Rose admitted, then waved her hands dismissively, "but that's not it. It's more than that, I think. Have you noticed that Scorpius only talks to you when James can hear?"
Albus had noticed.
"So you think he's just trying to get to James through us?" he asked carefully.
Rose nodded eagerly, "exactly. He seems to really hate James for some reason."
He'd never much liked gossiping, so Albus didn't contradict her, but he had a feeling that hate wasn't the right word for it…..
